Matt Gaetz introduces bill barring Adam Schiff from receiving classified information

Rep. Matt Gaetz is pushing a new bill that would restrict former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s access to classified information over his “baseless claims” of collusion between former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. 

The PENCIL Resolution, an apparent riff off of Trump’s derisive “Pencil-Neck” nickname for Schiff, stands for Preventing Extreme Negligence with Classified Information Licenses Resolution. It calls for Schiff (D-Calif.) not to have access to classified information, for him to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee, and to have comments he made in Congress on Russian collusion and the Trump campaign stricken from the record.

“Congressman Adam Schiff led the effort for years to weaponize lies from the Clinton campaign and a corrupt Department of Justice to smear President Trump while destroying any trust the country had left in America’s intelligence agencies,” a press release from Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Thursday read. 

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) refused to reappoint Schiff to the intelligence panel on Tuesday in a long-anticipated move, citing a lack of “integrity” and his “misuse of this panel” during the Trump administration.

“Speaker McCarthy kept his promise to remove Rep. Schiff from the Intelligence Committee, and with the PENCIL Resolution, we will express the sense of Congress that he should be barred from accessing any classified information at all. He can no longer be trusted by his colleagues in Congress or the American people,” said Gaetz.

Schiff, who led a House Intelligence Committee investigation into Trump’s alleged ties with Russia, also served as the lead prosecutor in the former president’s first impeachment trial.

Schiff on Thursday announced his intentions to run for Senate in California, to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstain (D-Calif.). 

“We’re in the fight of our lives for the future of our country. Our democracy is under assault from MAGA extremists, who care only about gaining power and keeping it,” Schiff said in a statement. “And our economy is simply not working for millions of Americans, who are working harder than ever just to get by.”